Arsenal Sinks United With Two Late Strikes (Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 1)

As mentioned in the last game review, I was attending the 'wedding of the year' and caught this game at the hotel room after it was over.

Thankfully I had plenty of alcohol before watching this game. It was a scrappy affair with neither team really able to play their usual brand of exciting soccer. Baring the last couple of minutes of the first half, where Rooney and Larsson have superb chances foiled by Lehmann, the entire half was a non-event.

Early in the second half, Rooney scored his first headed goal after Evra had made a nice, determined run to cross a sweet ball to him. After the goal, I had assumed the worst result would be a draw and promptly fell asleep. As long as we made ground against our closest rivals, Chelsea, it was good enough for me.

Unfortunately my sweet dreams were dashed when the entire room of soccer fanatics I was watching with, screamed goal twice in a span of 10 minutes. Arsenal had clawed their way from behind to win with a last minute headed goal from Henry, after Van Persie had equalised earlier. I'm glad I had taken a large dose of alcohol to numb the effects of this defeat.

The only silverlining I can draw from this defeat is that we still did manage to gain ground on Chelsea by improving our goal difference. Of course getting a more concrete gain in points would have been ideal, but I'm taking this moral victory as part and parcel of supporting United.

Having lived thru the 80s, I'm just glad we're in today's position. At the same time, I pity my glory-hunting Liverpool fans who cheered so loud when Henry scored the winner. I'm sure they would love to be in our position, with a 12 point advantage over our rivals and 6 above anyone resembling a football club.

Na na na na na na, na na na na na na.